Becky Safarik, assistant city manager for Greeley, places a few makers on a map of downtown Greeley Thursday afternoon in City Hall. The map has helped illustrate the various changes that have taken place in downtown Greeley as well as the changes that have yet to come.

Greeley’s downtown district has experienced growth and loss throughout the years. The Downtown Development Authority counts a net gain of 50 businesses in the entire district, which runs from 5th Street to 17th Street between 11th and 6th avenues. Below are some businesses that have come and gone from the core of the district, which makes up the heart of downtown. Business Address Opened Closed

Academy of Natural Therapy 625 8th Ave. 2004

Accessories with a Flair and Hair! 801 8th Ave. 1997

Alas Blancas Nightclub 716 11th St. 2013

Ancient Wisdom Healing Arts 815 9th St. 2012

Antiques at Lincoln Park 822 8th St. 1989 2009

Armadillo 819 9th St. 1980s 2012

Banner Health Chase Building 2010

Batter Up Cakes 802 9th St. 2011

Bean Plant Studio 701 7th St. 2010

Bear Country Saloon 813 9th St. 2013

Bono’s Race Place 906 9th Ave. 1996 Aug. 31, 2013

Bow Depot 924 8th Ave. 2004 Unknown

Bread Board 822 7th St. 2006 2009

Café Panache 821 10th St. 2011

Christian Science Reading Room 826 9th St. 2009

Club Vu-Doo 908½ 8th Ave. 2013

Community Foundation 711 8th Ave. 1997 2013

Conservatory Dance Studio 813 8th St. 1994

Consider It There 813 8th St. 1994 Moving to 812 11th St. (opening Aug. 19)

Related Media

The 143-year-old downtown center of Greeley is akin to a kaleidoscope whose picture changes with each turn of the tube. In another decade, Greeley’s downtown may be unrecognizable.

But the transformation of the last few years was immediately apparent to Casey McConnell, who returned to Greeley last year after a nine-year stint in Aspen. He found an almost entirely new landscape from back in the day, when some would say the Rio Grande Mexican restaurant held downtown Greeley together.

Now, there are more bars, music venues, restaurants, gift shops, even a theater. People actually flock downtown on Friday nights. Talk of a new hotel and parking garage isn’t just coffee shop chatter.

“I had no intentions of moving my business to Greeley, or staying in Greeley,” said McConnell, a 1997 graduate of Greeley Central High School. “But moving back and getting a sense for what downtown had to offer, the restaurants, just everything happening, and to find this studio right here on the edge of downtown. I’m sold.”

McConnell is one of the latest implants in downtown, opening a studio for his marketing business, Qittle. The list of transplants who think Greeley’s downtown is going places is growing.

Rich Carroll and his business partners, Sarah and Aaron Wooten, are remodeling a spot at 823 10th St., next to 3-year-old Café Panache, to start up the Cranford Cove Tea Tavern (and it’s not your grandma’s tea house). The two will share an entryway into each other’s space, and capitalize on Panache’s art and crepes, and the Tavern’s planned music.

Ryan Gentry and Ben Grabowski, who own the Penalty Box, the Jager, Grabo’s Bar & Grill and Sky Night Club, are on the move again, as well. They’re relocating Grabo’s into the Sky space. They’ve also taken over the former Dutch’s at 813 9th St., to open Bear Country Saloon, a country bar complete with line dancing.

Downtown Development Director Pam Bricker is juggling a host of potentials. A new bar/restaurant called the Tilted Kilt Pub and Eatery, a national franchised sports bar, is coming soon to the old Oasis Hotel building. A couple of young entrepreneurs are looking at putting a tap house at the Conservatory Building on 8th Street. There’s two potential takers on the old Kia property at 8th Avenue and 5th Street, Bricker said, which at one point attracted the attention of Walmart to develop a new concept store. Bricker said another potential business owner is looking at the possibility of opening a comic book and game store downtown.

Greeley Chophouse owner Tim Veldhuizen was sold on downtown’s magic after just four months here. He opened the Chophouse to standing-room-only crowds last spring. He’s planning to open Moody’s American Grill in what is now Grabo’s at 801 9th St.

“My feeling is, you strike while the iron is hot,” Veldhuizen said. “The need is there. The Chophouse is running well, and it’s a good opportunity for us.”

He plans to take advantage of the patio, especially to make it eye-catching for traffic along 8th Avenue, and have it open by October. He hopes to attract a strong lunch crowd with meals that can be cooked in 12 minutes — essentially giving customers a good meal with enough time to return to work.

“I think it’s just a great corner in downtown Greeley. We’ll be able to develop that patio a bit better, and really try to make the outside of the building more restaurant like. People driving by will immediately notice that it’s a cool, casual place.”

Maybe after all these years, city and downtown officials’ efforts to attract attention to the district is finally paying off. It doesn’t hurt that the downtown has been designated a creative district, and the core of the area is a common drinking district they call Go-Cup — the first of its kind in the state. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have more of a push for events downtown.

“We still have a long way to go to get to saturation point,” said Bricker, whose leadership has been credited with much of the current momentum. “But I don’t see anything going away in hurry. More and more people are discovering downtown, more and more people are having fun downtown, and that’s what turns the attention, especially with more restaurant options.”

What that’s done is create a couple of different markets to keep downtown humming day and night. The restaurants and bars service both lunch crowds and nighttime activities.

The city has been awash for months in talk of a new hotel coming downtown. Greeley officials say they are as close as ever to creating a development agreement on that hotel. The plan is to have a hotel built in the lot with the Lincoln Park Library, complete with a parking garage.

“What the hotel will bring to us is the tourism factor,” Bricker said. “It will bring small conferences, people who are attending dog shows at Island Grove, people who are staying in a nice facility in the heart of downtown, where they can walk out the door, go to retail and restaurants and enjoy downtown.”

Downtown is not a case of the blind leading the blind. Sales tax revenue for the district is climbing, even as a steady stream of businesses have left downtown for a variety of reasons through the years.

In 2012, sales tax collections in the downtown plazas were up 6.45 percent to $236,739 from 2011, and up 16 percent from 2010 collections, Bricker said. The entire downtown district, which stretches south to 17th Street near the University of Northern Colorado and north to 5th Street, saw sales tax revenues of $1.16 million last year, up 2.2 percent from 2011, Bricker said.

Come 10 years from now, downtown could be totally different. Assistant City Manager Becky Safarik has plotted out the possibilities with moveable, marked pieces on a map in her office, mostly to determine space availability from the 30,000-foot level, as more inquiries come in.

He likened downtown back then to a demilitarized zone that separated the town between socioeconomic classes. Many felt it wasn’t safe to come downtown.

Though the area is relatively crime free today, trepidations have lingered through the years.

“One of the most-often things we heard was, ‘You can’t do it here, it’s Greeley,’ ” said Bill Gentry, who runs four downtown business with his son Ryan, and partner Ben Grabowski. “We were pigheaded enough to ignore it. … Frankly, my son and Ben are driving forces. They won’t listen to the negativity. When you get four to five really strong-willed people together, exciting things start to happen.”

Linda McSwain, who has owned the Conservatory Building downtown for 20 years, can’t believe the changes she’s seen.

“With all of us who have worked with DDA and just believed in downtown Greeley and the potential that is there, to see the new businesses and new surge of energy, and just the goodness that’s happening there,” said McSwain, crediting Bricker, and longtime downtown patron saint, Bob Tointon. “It’s a breath of fresh air to see. I’m thrilled and anticipate we’ll continue to grow.”

Bricker and others believe the 8th and 9th Street plazas will fill up soon, which will enable them to turn their attention to 8th Avenue, which the city has plans to refurbish.

Momentum is building so much, it’s also drawing non-retail. Take Andy Nagel, who moved his 20-year old business, Mirage Productions, at 924 8th Ave., to downtown last year.

“I have the feeling that downtown is on a roll, that it will be an exciting place to locate a business,” Nagel said. “I was previously in an industrial park outside of town and this is just a lot more energizing.”